Agriculture, Silos

Satake Australia designs biggest silo yet

In response to extreme market demand, Satake Australia has unveiled its largest ever conical base silo. 

In response to extreme market demand, Satake Australia has unveiled its largest ever conical base silo. 

Working in a confined space can be a dangerous job. Governments tend to agree, having put in place safety regulations to minimise risks for workers in vats, tanks, pits, pipes, chimneys, silos, and tunnels.

This has made conical base silos an attractive piece of equipment to many employers, as there is minimal moving parts and no need for staff to enter the silo.

Satake Australia had seen the popularity of its range of conical-based silos soar as a result, but there was just one issue – its customers wanted more.

Caillum Coleman, a sales representative for Satake Australia, said with equipment getting bigger and faster, its customers were after an even larger silo.

“He had a 700-tonne silo which had a lot of great feedback from the industry, but the main thing we were hearing was it needed to be bigger,” he told ABHR.

“We planned a 1000-tonne silo but even that wasn’t big enough, so instead we designed a 1445-tonne silo.”

The newly developed silos hit the market around a year ago and have proven to be a success. 

Coleman said the strength of the silos is what sets them apart.

“Because they’re a sealed silo, they need to be heavy-duty and designed to withstand a certain level of stress at the weakest point,” he said.

“We run simulations to make sure it meets Australian Standards for wind rating and stability. We’ve got thick and heavy-duty universal column beams for the legs and a radius ring that supports the whole silo.”

For additional strength, the company has included external stiffeners that connect with the roof structure. These are also set up for overhead equipment, so if the silo is being installed with intake and unloading equipment, individual supports aren’t needed.

Satake Australia mainly provides the silos for grain-handling projects. It can provide a range of specialised silos for fertilisers, lime silos, coarse materials or fine materials.

Coleman said the company can design a silo to handle whatever needs to be stored.

“We’ve got lots of jobs on the go at the moment,” he said. “In the past six months, we’ve were involved with an inland port in central Queensland, a new development at the Port of Townsville and a heap of local jobs for the surrounding area.

“Our teams have just finished delivering silos and a cleaning system on the Murray River and have supplied a heap of silos down to Geelong (Victoria), as well.

“We’re Australia-wide and are well established across the eastern seaboard. We are willing to travel and have even done a few international projects in Papua New Guinea.”

Satake has been operating in Australia since 1992, when the company purchased the British company Robinson Milling Systems. Satake’s head office is located in Western Sydney, while its major manufacturing facility is in Allora, Queensland.

The company manufactures its silos out of Australian steel and employs crews to deliver and install them.

Coleman said there are about four crews that work full-time handling complex silo work, including a construction manager to handle the logistics.

“At the end of the day, we need to be flexible around things like weather events, and in the past couple of years, access to interstate travel,” he said.

With two workshops, Satake can build machinery specific to the Australian market and quickly fabricate spare parts. It works alongside local original equipment manufacturers for motors, gearboxes, and belts to ensure each project meets expectations.

The company continues to service and support a lot of its older equipment. Many of its flour and feed mills are more than 30 years old, with spare parts still on offer for machines that have turned 70.  

It can also call upon the Satake Corporation, a global equipment supplier, for more than just silos. The business has a wide range of machinery fit for the cereal, pulse, nut and plastic processing industries.

Coleman said customers have been impressed by the new 1445-tonne silos.

“We had a new client that is over the moon with them,” he said. “They love the quality and are impressed the just how strong they are.

“They’re happy with how it all came together and how we got the job done.”

Satake Australia aims to continue its growth and has even started planning potential expansions to the range. While it’s still early in development, the company has started looking at even larger tonnages.

“There’s grinders going constantly at our Allora facility,” Coleman said. “There’s a lot of optimism in the industry, so we’re hoping to continue expanding.” 

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